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Krypton’s Cancellation and My Love for the Show

After learning that Krypon would be cancelled yesterday on Aug. 17, I feel that an opportunity to tell and complete a great story was lost. What I loved about Krypton was that it was not just an origin story before the origin story of Superman. With it’s characters and writing, Krypton was a story about struggle, hope, redemption, and revolution that could have went very far before the arrival of baby Kal-El.

Seg-El (played by Cameron Cuffe) may have not been Superman but he did evoke that same spirit of the Man of Steel. Seg was selfless, kind, and resilient like his future grandson. One scene involving Seg that I liked was that of a young Kryptonian man struggling to make ends meet. With the help of his bartender friend Kem, Seg is bare knuckle fighting only to make ends meet for his family that was once noble but now destitute. Another thing I found cool about Seg is that even after his parents were killed by his girlfriend Lyta Zod’s mother, Jayna Zod, he still stuck his neck out for her and the many others he cares for. If that isn’t heroic, then I don’t know what else is.

If you watched the show through out its two seasons and followed Cuffe on Twitter, you could tell that he really put a lot into the Seg-El character and was a student of all things Superman. In some epsidoes, he made several references to the past actors that played Superman: Henry Cavil’s boxing stance from Mission Impossible, the George Reeves wink, and Christopher Reeve’s quote “General, care to step outside?”

Val-El (played by Ian McElhinney) symbolized the indomitable hope that everyone, characters and viewers alike, had for Seg’s eventually return and Krypton’s freedom from the tyranical General Dru Zod (Lyta and Seg’s future son), played by Colin Salmon.

Both Lyta Zod (played by Georgina Camobell) and Jayna Zod (played by Ann Ogbomo) represented redemption from their upbringings and actions which were evoked by the events that were caused by Brainiac’s (played by Blake Ritson) arrival and General Zod’s accesion as ruler of Krypton. Nyssa Vex (played by Wallis Day) also had a redemption arc which was evoked by her maturity from a manipulative and opportunistic politician like her father Darron Vex (played by Elliot Cowan) to a loving and supportive character. The theory that she is Superman’s and Supergirl’s grandmother was further solidifed when her and Seg’s son Cor Vex was renammed Jor-El which was one of my favorite scenes of Season Two.

Adam Strange (played by Shaun Sipos) became one of my favoritee characters on the show. He was seen as a down-on-his-luck hero who he felt was a failure despite being sent by Superman to warn of Brainaic arriving on Krypton. He is the one that tells Seg that his future grandson will become Superman and give him a crystal that would open the Fortress of Solitude on Kryton. Seg is initally distrustful of Adam and doesn’t like him. Over the course of Season One, we see a man struggling to become a hero in his own right but despite his failures, he remains persevered. Adam finally becomes more heroic after saving Seg and Kem from an bomb rigged and Brainaic controlled Ona. This earns Seg’s respect and eventually, the two become close comrades when Adam zeta beams to the Collu to help bring Seg back to Krypon to stop Zod while hilariously being chase by Lobo (played by Emmett J Scanlan).

I would say that Dev Em (played by Aaron Pierre) and Kem (played by Rasmus Hardiker) also went through some changes. Dev went from a loyal and patriotic Sagatari to a man who was a voice of wisdom to Jayna Zod, Seg, and the rest of Team El. Kem went from a bartender who evoked comedic relief to a hardened soldier that retained his sense of humor even in the face of Doomsday before dying heroically.

The show had a lot of influences that evoked revolutionary and political undertones. While the Voice of Rao was seen as a theocratic figurehead, General Dru Zod was seen as a fascist and a conquer who wanted to take over alien planets. The Voice of Rao ruled Krypton with a velvet glove whereas Zod ruled with an iron fist while using the El manta of a better tommorrow as a political slogan. Black Zero led by Jax Ur (played by Hannah Waddingham) and the Kryptonian resistance led by Val El were obviously seen as the outcasts, idealists, and freedom fighters. In addition to this, we also saw that even a cause to overthrow tyranny had its own division due to Jax Ur’s extreme militarism versus Val El’s arahaic sense of justice that is similar to that of his future great grandson’s.

Krypton also introduced us to a society that is not too different from our own. When under the rule of the Voice of Rao, Kandor City was a fragmented society that had several elite guilds and a group call the rankless. The guilds lived in luxury while the rankless had lived in poverty. When Zod came to power, the fragmentation was dissolved due to Zod putting the rankless into military service.

As I write this, watching Krypton made me feel once more like that six year old kid who grew up believing that a man could fly. I was a scrawny kid who was barely gaining weight and not struggling with eating but it was Superman who got me through all that. After watching Krypton, it was as if I was reminded that I should never give up on my goals or myself for that matter. After watching the show, whenever someone asks me how I am doing, I always tell them: “I am doing well and working for a better tomorrow.” And I have everyone who worked on Krypton to thank for that. And of course, the special thanks go to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster for creating an awesome story that made all of this possible.

I hope that Warner Bros. vouches to get Krypton back on the air. As I have written in the beginning, I feel that an opportunity to tell and complete a great story was lost. But it doesn’t have to be. I hope that someone picks this show up and continues to tell it because it is a great story about a young man struggling to fight for his family’s honor while fighting to save his home. And it is a story of those who will help shape that man who will become the grandfather of the greatest superhero who believes in a better tomorrow and who inspires us to do the same.

I believe that Krypton will be picked up again. I believe that the show has more great stories to tell. And, I believe that if we tell the world to #savekrypton, the show will have a better tomorrow.